Jefferson dissatisfied
We have seen that
Jefferson, who set on foot the expedition,
had from the first expressed
much concern in its records, both
in the making and the publication. He
had urged
their early printing, and on Lewis's death spurred
Clark
to action; with what result, has been related
The dilatoriness of that
performance—for which Clark, how-ever,
was only partly responsible—fretted the great man.
December
6th, 1813, he wrote to Baron von Humboldt:
"You will find it inconceivable
that Lewis's journey to the
Pacific should not yet have appeared; nor is
it in my power
to tell you the reason. The measures taken by his surviving
companion, Clark, for the publication, have not answered our
wishes
in point of dispatch. I think, however, from what I
have heard, that the
mere journal will be out within a few
weeks in two volumes, 8vo. These I
will take care to send
you with the tobacco seed you desired, if it be
possible for
them to escape the thousand ships of our enemies spread over
the ocean. The botanical and zoological discoveries of Lewis
will
probably experience greater delay, and become known to
the world through
other channels before that volume will be
ready. The Atlas, I believe,
waits on the leisure of the
engraver"[45]
Nearly a hundred
years have elapsed, and until
the present work neither scientific data nor
atlas has been given
to the public.
